Mood:  amorous

 "TRUE LOVE"

S. 1 Corinthians 14:1 (MSG) Go after a life of love as if your life depended on it—because it does. Give yourselves to the gifts God gives you.

O. The most important thing is life is love; love of God, love of other people. Love is the only thing that lasts forever. We will be remembered for how we have loved. Love is what God judges us on as we continue our eternal life's journey.

And when God gives us His gifts of the Spirit, we are to totally put our whole selves into them; giving them all we've got...studying them, practicing them, learning from mentors about the. In this way our God-given gifts are put to HIS use for man's good.

A. All that can matter in my life is how I love God and others. Everything good stems out of love. Everything that is real and truth comes out of love. When I know God's compassion in my heart, allowing His love to reign through me, I feel that love that lasts. In that place of God's compassion, I am real and full of God's Truth. I can't love in a real way without knowing God's love for me and others. When I love HIM, He spreads His love over me, inside and out. It's a love I can not contain or keep for myself. It overflows onto others. This is the place I need to constantly live...KNOWING God's love, personally!

P. Teach me more about Your love, Father. Open my eyes, ears and heart to Your kind of love. Fill me up with Your special kind of love...to the top and overflowing. I NEED Your love, compassion and passion, Jesus!

 "LOVE, THE APHRODISIAC FOR SPIRITUAL GIFTS"

S. 1 Corinthians 12: 29-31 Are all apostles (special messengers)? Are all prophets (inspired interpreters of the will and purposes of God)? Are all teachers? Do all have the power of performing miracles?

Do all possess extraordinary powers of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret?

But earnestly desire and zealously cultivate the greatest and best gifts and graces (the higher gifts and the choicest graces). And yet I will show you a still more excellent way [one that is better by far and the highest of them all--love].

O. The desire for spiritual gifts comes from our love for God. When we desire to please Him because of our love for Him, we want to do what His Son Jesus did; point to the Father through actions then words. Jesus had all the spiritual gifts. Because we also are 'sons of God', we can have them, too...just by stirring up our desire through love of God.

A. Wanting to please God stirs up my heart to desire what I can do for Him. God just wants us all to know Him. I must show God's love and desire for ALL people by showing 'proof' that He lives in me. The 'proof' is in the gifts that God gives me. I desire these because I know He loves me...and that I love Him.

P. Father, I love how You love me. Stir me up inside, Father, by our love, so that I will desire every gift that You have chosen for me.

Mood:  hungry

 "Eating at Home so I can Eat with Others"

S. 1 Corinthians 11:33, 34 So then, my brothers, when you gather together to eat [the Lord’s Supper], wait for one another.

If anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, lest you come together to bring judgment [on yourselves.

O. When we come together to learn about what God's Word says, we are to come having learned from God, personally, at home. We are to come prepared with what God has given us personally in order to, maybe, share what He has shown us personally. We are to come together prepared to learn from others what they have learned personally. We are not to come together as ravenously hungry but come willing to partake from others knowledge on the basis of what we have also personally learned. In that way we do not 'hog' the time spent in what others are sharing, equalizing the learning from others.

A. When I study God's Word at home, I have a basis on which to learn from others. I have heard from God through His Word, personally, and can then go on to learn more from what others have 'heard' from God in their personal time. This adds to my learning without taking more time from others and their learning. It's adding more revelation on top of what I have learned at home in my personal life.

P. Father, You alone know what knowledge and wisdom I need more of. Prepare my heart, through Your Word, in a personal way, in order that I will come together with others and receive THEIR revelations, too!

Mood:  a-ok

S. 1 Corinthians 2:16 For who has known or understood the mind (the counsels and purposes) of the Lord so as to guide and instruct Him and give Him knowledge? But we have the mind of Christ (the Messiah) and do hold the thoughts (feelings and purposes) of His heart.

O. We can not understand the way God thinks. We can't TEACH Him ANYTHING! But we DO posess the same faculties that the Son of God has! We DO hold Jesus' mode of thinking, judgement, feelings, purposes and desires, because He dwells inside of us. We just have to 'step aside' and let Jesus rule! THEN we'll have the same desires, thoughts, feelings and purposes as HE has! And He KNOWS the Father!

A. I believe that anything that is good in me is Jesus. He is ONLY good, and is the reason I can be good. I KNOW when I, myself, step aside and let Jesus be King in my life because everything comes out right, good and points to Father God! Learning to walk like Jesus is learning to surrender all of me to Him.

P. Jesus, walk in FRONT of me. I ask for humility and surrender in my life...more of YOU and less of ME!

Mood:  quizzical

S.  Galations 6:4, 8 But let every person carefully scrutinize and examine and test his own conduct and his own work. He can then have the personal satisfaction and joy of doing something commendable [in itself alone] without [resorting to] boastful comparison with his neighbor.

vs. 8. For he who sows to his own flesh (lower nature, sensuality) will from the flesh reap decay and ruin and destruction, but he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.

O.  So why do I post my soaps on Facebook, the church blog, and send them to people? In this I need to test myself, to see if I'm doing it to BOAST or COMPARE myself to others. Am I doing it to 'sow into my flesh' (building up my flesh)? OR am I doing it to sow into the others the revelations that Holy Spirit gives me. The result of sharing these soaps should be FRUIT, the results of fruit coming from the Spirit.  No fruit, no Truth. If others are truly benefiting from them, then that would be the Fruit! If my flesh is growing...that would be a time to stop.

A.  Now I need to keep watchful of what I am doing. I have to watch the results in my fleshly self when I post soaps. I have to watch and see MY reaction to what others are saying or NOT saying. It isn't up to me to grow 'fruit'...that's Jesus' job. It's MY job to plant seed. But if those 'seeds' are coming from the flesh that says, "LOOK AT ME!" then I am posting soaps for the wrong reason...not for the SPIRIT'S desire, but for my FLESHLY desire.

MERCY (for others) OR GLORY (for my flesh)? (as in the dream I had...the character/name of Bob/Robert: 'GLORY' or John: 'MERCY') WHICH character do I have when posting these soaps? FLESHLY GLORY OR MERCY ON OTHERS. WHICH character am I embracing in intimacy?

This is what I have to figure out! Which am I choosing?

P. No one knows me like YOU, Abba Father! I am asking that You reveal to me the REASON I am soaping and sharing. I ask for the right heart and spirit in 'seed planting'. I ask for a humble heart and a spirit that only follows Your Spirit! I ask for the heart of Jesus in spreading 'seed'.

Mood:  happy

I CHOOSE TO CALL HIM 'ABBA'; TIME TO PLAY & PRAY

S. Galations 4:6,7

And because you [really] are [His] sons (kinship/heirs), God has sent the [Holy] Spirit of His Son into our hearts (soul, mind, thoughts, will, character, seat of intelligence, emotions, desires, passions, purposes, affections, sensibilities) crying (screaming), Abba (Father) (to be familiar with, to know)! Father!

Therefore (AS A RESULT), you are no longer a slave (bond servant) but a son; and if a son, then [it follows that you are] an heir by the aid of God, through Christ.

O. ABBA: It is a term expressing warm affection and filial (Pertaining to a son or daughter; becoming to or due from a child in relation to the parents). confidence. (Easton)

  THE SOIL OF OFFENSE THAT GROWS THE SEEDS OF SHAME AND CONFUSION

S.Mark 15:15  So Pilate ('armed with a dart or spear; offense), wishing to satisfy the crowd, set Barabbas (son/seed of shame and confusion) free for them; and after having Jesus (salvation/deleverance) whipped (punished in public), he handed [Him] over to be crucified (destroy its power utterly)

O. Satan uses the 'Pilates' (Offenses) of today to release the 'seeds' of confusion and shame free in our lives. He does this in 'public' in order to humiliate us.

Satan uses the 'Pilates' (Offenses) of today to publicly punish us, with the intention to utterly destroy and subdue our deliverance/salvation and freedom.

A. Offense in my life should be null and void, because the Bible says it is a sin. Offense is taking on another burden to carry that shouldn't even exist in my life because I have been set free by Jesus.

But when I DO take on offense, it releases the seeds of shame and confusion in my life...gives shame and confusion a place to grow.

Offense is the soil in which the seeds of confusion and shame can grow.

If I refuse to take on offenses, confusion and shame have NO PLACE TO SPROUT!

P. I am free of shame and confusion because You have taken away the offenses that can grow those 'seeds' in my life. Jesus, blind me to offenses. Cover my ears so I will never even hear them. In Your name, Jesus.

Mark 16:7But be going; tell the disciples and Peter, He goes before you into Galilee; you will see Him there, [just] as He told you.

Mood:  amorous

S. Mark 14:3 3And while He was in Bethany, [a guest] in the house of Simon the leper, as He was reclining [at table], a woman came with an alabaster jar of ointment (perfume) of pure nard, very costly and precious; and she broke the jar and poured [the perfume] over His head.

O.  "In the days Jesus was on earth, when a young woman reached the age of availability for marriage, her family would purchase an alabaster box for her and fill it with precious ointment. The size of the box and the value of the ointment would parallel her family's wealth.

This alabaster box would be part of her dowry. When a young man came to ask for her in marriage, she would respond by taking the alabaster box and breaking it at his feet. This gesture of anointing his feet showed him honor."

This story is moving towards the idea of illustrating Jesus as our
Bridegroom. Will we take the most precious dowry and place it at His
feet, follow Him with reckless abandon? I think you probably get the
idea.

She broke the SEAL and anointed him with oil, and that along with the cup of wine, was an agreement to enter under his authority as his wife. The box was a very integral part of their married life, and could not be broken.

The alabaster box had a very sexual connotation in that culture. I have read that women anointed their husbands before or after intimate relations, and that prostitutes would anoint men at banquet gatherings to confirm their availability.
 

Whatever the meaning, this gift was extremely valuable, not only in monetary terms, but in social and marital terms. It ties very closely with the Song of Songs, and I think the lesson is for me to ask myself if I have given all I have to give to Christ, and if not, am I willing to."

A. I have promised myself to Jesus. As the question above says, "have I given all to Him, and if not, am I willing to"? Intimacy with Jesus is the key to a full spiritual life; a parallel to a blissful bride and groom in their intimacy. United as one, I am to be His 'bride', loving, honoring and obeying.

P. Jesus, thank You for choosing ME as Your intimate partner, Your bride. Draw closer to me, my Lord, in intimacy and unity. The closer I am to You, the more alive I feel...both in body and spirit!

Mood:  special

S. Mark 11:8, 11  8. And many [of the people] spread their garments on the road, and others [scattered a layer of] leafy branches which they had cut from the fields.

11. And Jesus went into Jerusalem and entered the temple [enclosure]; and when He had looked around, surveying and observing everything, as it was already late, He went out to Bethany together with the Twelve [apostles].

O. Mark 11 is a picture of salvation and what Jesus does for us after we:

vs.8-10... HOSANNA! 'welcome Him' into our 'temple/soul'.

vs.11...Jesus comes into our 'temple/soul and surveys what is there.

vs.12-14... He searches for 'fruit' outside of our temple/soul, because He is hungry for us to have 'fruit/proof' that He reigns in us.

vs.15 & 16...When He finds no fruit/proof of true salvation, He goes back inside of us and 'drives out' the 'buyers and sellers'...those things that we have believed would make us 'good enough' (trading 'works' for 'false salvation') in order to 'work' for eternal life...those things we 'carry'/believe' that aren't truly what gets us closer to God. Jesus reveals to us what we have used as 'short-cuts'. (There IS no 'short-cut' to salvation. There is only faith in Jesus and His sacrifice on the cross for us!)

vs.17 THEN Jesus teaches us, in our temple/soul, that we were created as a 'temple for prayer to God, a temple for worship to God', not a 'place for thieves' (i.e. satan and his co-horts that hide inside of us in order to plunder all God has intended for us).

vs.18. Man's ideas ("the chief priests") then try to come into our minds trying to steal the freedom/truth that Jesus has brought to us...telling us that it is what WE DO (works) that saves us, not what JESUS has done. (works are the was to salvation vs. faith in Jesus)

vs.19 Jesus then leads us into 'the city', the 'everyday life' where we walk between the 'flesh and the spirit'.

vs.20 Out in the 'city' (everyday life), Jesus reveals to us that there is no 'fruit' (withered fig tree) outside of faith in Him. We have to live in and through faith in Jesus, while forgiving ourselves and others, in order to see proof/fruit in our lives of what God has done for us through His Son, Jesus.

A. I can see that Mark 11 is a parallel to my salvation. I can see that once I surendered to Jesus, and was saved by Him, that everything in this chapter has happened to me.

He has 'cleansed' my temple/soul of false things and then shown me my everyday life and living in order that I might see if there was 'fruit/proof' that He was THE King in my life.

He then has shown me the things that I have 'traded' for truth...the 'works or things' that I have THOUGHT were getting me to salvation, while buying salvation through 'works'; the things I have tried to use as 'short cuts' to salvation. Jesus drives those ideas OUT!

He then taught me WHY I am here on this earth. I was created as God's living temple for prayer to Him and worship of Him.

He taught me how satan has used me as a 'hidding place' in order to steal what God had intended for my life....AND that satan has no right to be there because I am a child of God.

Jesus has taught me that man's ideas are not God's ideas. Man inserts the idea into God's law that it takes 'works' to get eternal life. Whereas, God's idea of salvation is in faith in Him alone...through the 'WORKS OF JESUS'...alone!

Then Jesus shows me, while I follow His leading, how to walk like Him in this world...walking between the flesh and the spirit and living out this life in my everyday living. Walking by FAITH and not by SIGHT...it's the only way to stay right behind Jesus while walking through this life in order to BE PROOF that He is living in me; King of my life.

P. Thank You, Holy Spirit, for revealing this scripture personally for me. I DO see what You are trying to show me. I DO see what my life needs to be, through this scripture. I DO see Jesus and all He is leading me to be and do in this life. Thank You, my Jesus! You amaze me...ALWAYS!

Jesus only enters us, His temple, when we ask. He doesn't force His way in, but comes gently, meekly, and humbly. (the symble of riding a 'donkey') (the LAMB)

Once He is inside of us, He uses His authority on the evil things/satan and his co-horts, to drive out all that isn't good, pure and true in us. (the LION)

Mood:  irritated

S. Mark 9:24-27 And after giving a [hoarse, clamoring, fear-stricken] shriek of anguish and convulsing him terribly, it (the evil spirit) came out; and the boy lay [pale and motionless] like a corpse, so that many of them said, He is dead.

But Jesus took [a strong grip of] his hand and began lifting him up, and he stood.

O. When Satan knows he's about to loose, he holds on with both fists...TIGHTLY! Satan fights the hardest to keep what he claims for himself (US and God's answers for us) just before he KNOWS that he has to give it up. Satan can not win against Jesus, the Son of God. This is the time we should know that God is about to release to us His blessings, healing and wholeness; answers to our prayers...the very things that Satan doesn't want us having....FREEDOM!

A. This scripture made me angry that satan should try to keep Jesus, the Son of the Most High God, from freeing this young man! WHO DOES HE THINK HE IS!? 

BUT, THROUGH this scripture, I can understand how satan works...and gives away his 'plans'. When satan holds on with both fists to an answer to prayer, THIS IS THE CLUE TO KNOWING WE WIN! HERE is the time we STAND, TAKE AUTHORITY, and TAKE OUR BLESSING and THE ANSWER TO OUR PRAYERS...by the authority we have through JESUS!

P. Open my eyes quickly, Father, to see the 'fists of satan' and what he has his hands on. Thank You for Your Son's authority, given to me by Him, to bust the plans of satan wide open! Show me how to use that gift swiftly, with open eyes and with Your Sons full authority! I want to PUNCH SATAN'S LIGHTS OUT...in the name of Jesus!